Effective immediately we are suspending the publication of Grantland. After careful consideration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.

Grantland distinguished itself with quality writing, smart ideas, original thinking and fun. We are grateful to those who made it so. Bill Simmons was passionately committed to the site and proved to be an outstanding editor with a real eye for talent. Thanks to all the other writers, editors and staff who worked very hard to create content with an identifiable sensibility and consistent intelligence and quality. We also extend our thanks to Chris Connelly who stepped in to help us maintain the site these past five months as he returns to his prior role.

Despite this change, the legacy of smart long-form sports story-telling and innovative short form video content will continue, finding a home on many of our other ESPN platforms.

DeMarcus Cousins was the Kings leading scorer. He had 32 points going 10 for 21 from the field, 4 for 5 from three and 8 for 11 from the free throw line. Unfortunately, Cousins had 8 turnovers!

Blake Griffin looked good and was the Clippers leading scorer. He had 33 points on 14 for 20 from the field and 5 for 7 from the free throw line.

The Kings offense looked disjointed for most of the game; it looked like they had never played together. The line-up of Collison, Cousins, Gay, Casspi and Belinelli {a point guard, a big man and three perimeter shooters} pulled the Kings back into the game in the fourth period.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

I spent the day at the second day of the Fall IT Directors Workshop. The agenda included: Morning Inspiration; the Ambulatory SWAT Team; ITPS & Business Intelligence by the CMIO; the Lodi Go-Live; Project Planning {I like Pie}; the Most Wired Award; and closing remarks by the CIO. The CFO was scheduled to speak in the afternoon, but had a conflict.

Monday, October 26, 2015

I spent the day at the first day of the Fall IT Directors Workshop. The agenda included: Morning Inspiration by San Joaquin; CIO Welcome; CTO Update; Rapid Response; Clinical Informatics; walk about with CareAware Connect, Clairvia, GE PACS Project/VNA, Health Info Exchange and Population Health/Analytics; HEAT; and, Leading Through Change by Ron Kirsch of the O'Brien Group.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

For the fourth year in a row [2014, 2013 and 2012], Sharon and Jack went with a group to the Jesuit Mother Son Mass. Afterwards, Jack went to Future Stars to work on this college applications, while Sharon went to breakfast with to brunch with a group at Bacon and Butter.

"Jimmer thinks everybody is stupid," said an NBA assistant who worked with Fredette. "He thinks everybody needs to come and just turn over their offense and let him shoot it anytime he wants. That's not how the league works."

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

I spent the day attending integrated testing for the SmartHospital project. Clinicians ran scripts testing the integration between Clairvia, Cerner CareAware Connect, the iPhones and the Sotera Visi Mobile devices.

Directed and produced by George Miller, it is the fourth instalment in the Mad Max franchise. The film is set in a future desert wasteland where gasoline and water are scarce commodities. It follows Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) who joins forces with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to flee from cult leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his army in an armoured tanker truck.

The film is essentially one long chase scene. Jack said something about the movie being filmed without any CGI special effects. I don't recommend the film.

America's first circus building was opened here at 12th and Market Streets, April 3, 1793. On that day the English equestrian John Bill Ricketts gave America's first complete circus performance. President Washington attended his show later that season.

As a side note, I am also doing something that I never do. I always read just one book at the time. Due to the way the podcasts are spread out, I will be carrying two books for the next couple of months...

Although it simplified most of the scientific plot points, the movie did a solid job of translating the book on to the big screen. The screenwriter did choose to cut three of the book's major plot points from the second half of the film. Additionally, they monkeyed with the ending. While I don't argue with how they cut the book to fit a two hour movie, I think that they should have stayed truer to the ending of the book...

Thursday, October 15, 2015

I finished reading The Martian by Andy Weir. I bought the book a couple of months ago after seeing promotions for the movie. With a couple of different books on the nightstand, I was looking for something lighter after reading Napoleon: A life.

The story follows an American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars and must improvise in order to survive. The book has been described as Castaway meets Apollo 13. The narrative is mostly told through the log entries.

Although it gets one basic fact wrong [the power of a dusk storm!], the book relies heavily on Watney working through the challenges with plausible solutions. The science behind his solutions is solid.

I enjoyed the book; I would give it a strong "B" grade. Sharon and I talked about going and seeing the movie last weekend, but I asked her to push it off a weekend so I could finish the book. We will probably see it this weekend.

The documentary starts by looking at USC's football tradition. John McKay coached the Trojans from 1960 to 1975; he won four national championship and five Rose Bowls and coached two Heisman Trophy winners. John Robinson coached the team from 1975 to 1982; he won one national championship and three Rose Bowls and coached two Heisman Trophy winners. The Trojans won 74.3% of their games in the 1960s and 80.3% of their games in the 1970s.

The program then fell into decline in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1990s, USC won just over 50% of its games.

The film then focuses on USC resurgence under Pete Carroll. Carroll coached the team from 2000 to 2009. During this period, the team had 97 wins and 19 losses (83.6%). In 2003, USC finished with 12 wins and one loss and won its first national championship since 1978. In 2004, USC went undefeated and won its second straight nation championship. Carson Palmer won the Heisman Trophy in 2002, Matt Leinart won in 2004 and Reggie Bush won in 2005.

At the end of the 2005 season in January 2006, an undefeated USC team lost the national championship game to Texas and Vince Young. I enjoyed the footage of that game. I didn't remember that Reggie Bush tried to lateral the ball to a teammate.

The film also looks at the impact of Los Angeles and Hollywood on the team. It examines the NCAA sanctions that the program incurred at the end of Carroll's run and the loss of Bush's Heisman.

As I have said on a number of occasions, I am not a college football fan. I have no interest in USC football. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this documentary a lot more than I expected. It is an engaging film that tells a good story.

Felix Salmina arrived from Switzerland in the 1860's and in 1892 purchased this winery that had been established in 1884 by Lillian Hitchcock Coit. Felix converted the winery into a larger facility using stone quarried from nearby hills and expanded the vineyards. Initially grapes sold for $5.00 per ton and wine for 5 cents a gallon. After prohibition, Larkmead developed a reputation as "one of the outstanding wine processing plants" in the Napa Valley. It was here that Hans Kornell produced sparkling wines. In 1993 the Frank family took over the operations and continues to produce both sparkling and still wines.

Monday, October 12, 2015

With Sharon having Columbus Day off from work, she drove over and met me in Napa in the afternoon. The plan for the day was to go wine tasting and have dinner near Calistoga to celebrate our nineteenth wedding anniversary.

We started with a late light lunch at the Hog Island Oyster Co. at the Oxbow Market in Napa. We had some broiled oysters and a salad. We need to sample a couple of the other restaurants at the Oxbow Market in the future...

From there, we headed north up the Napa Valley to the Frank Family Vineyards. The Frank Family property is one of the three oldest wineries in the Napa Valley. After wine tasting there, we continued north to the Bennett Lane Winery.

After wine tasting, we stopped and walked around in downtown Calistoga. It was unseasonably warm; the temperatures were in the mid-90s.

We finished the day with dinner at the Solbar Restaurant at the Solage Resort. I had heirloom melon and duck prosciutto and seared day boat diver scallops, while Sharon had seared sonoma artisan foie gras and pan-roasted mary’s chicken. As Sharon said, the dinner was "very, very good." After dinner, we exchanged gifts [sun glasses and a vase from Peru].

Sunday, October 11, 2015

On Sunday morning, Sharon and I rode 15.4 miles along the American River Bike Trail. Starting at Arden Park, we headed west to Cal Expo. There was a herd of sheep grazing along the river behind Cal Expo.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Before I forget, on Saturday, October 3, Sharon and I made our annual pilgrimage to Davis Ranch to get fall decorations. We have gone there for a car load of stuff every fall for twelve straight years [2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014]. One of my favorite pictures from those trips is here.

Friday, October 09, 2015

Sharon and I watched Brokeback Mountain. Sharon had seen the film in the theater when it came out in 2005, but I hadn't.

The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, and Randy Quaid. It depicts the complex relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards; the most nominations at the 78th Academy Awards. The nominations included: Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role (Heath Ledger); Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jake Gyllenhaal); Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Michelle Williams); and Best Cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto). The film ended up winning three Oscars: Best Director (Ang Lee); Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana); and, Best Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla). It lost best picture to Crash.

Oddly, other than Denny, we didn't run into very many people we knew. We sat with the president of the booster's club; Sharon has been the secretary of the booster's club over the last three years. Rod and Julie were tending bar. We talked to them afterwards.

The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building is regarded as the first International Style skyscraper built in the U.S. Completed in 1932, it was a radical departure from traditional bank architecture, exploiting the latest technological and structural advances.

Nancy Kelsey arrived in California in 1841 with the Bidwell-Bartleson party and settled with her family south of present-day Calistoga. Now the hearthstone is all that can be seen of the house. The property is owned by the Rockstrohs.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Janie came over on Saturday night for dinner. Sharon bought sauerkraut and brats from a German deli.

After dinner, we looked through all of the pictures and videos that Janie took on her and Sharon's European trip. We hooked the projector that I got Jack for his birthday to Janie's iPhone and displayed the pictures on the wall. We probably looked at almost 1,000 pictures!

I will probably end up using this picture of Sharon at Mürren in front of the Eiger on the Christmas card.

Friday, October 02, 2015

Strapped to a weather balloon bound for space, a GoPro camera soared almost 100,000 feet, into the stratosphere, to capture high-resolution footage of the Grand Canyon in 2013. An hour and a half into its flight the balloon burst and the camera plummeted back to earth.

It was two years before anyone would find the camera, which was lost in the Arizona desert.

Thursday, October 01, 2015

When we had dinner with the Gainsleys in July, we made plans to get together in Napa in early October. We all met at the Napa Valley Marriott. We called a cab and went to dinner at Ad Hoc in Yountville; this is one of Sharon's favorite restaurants. We had a nice dinner of a kale salad, flat iron steak and potatoes with the wine pairings. Getting a cab back to the hotel, we finished the night in the bar at the hotel.